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For Debby Morris, CFO of Apria Healthcare, data analytics are changing the way organizational decisions are made and support the evolution of the strategic CFO. Ms. Morris discusses her use of analytics for gaining insight into what’s driving the business and for decision-making. She also describes how her finance organization works in partnership with the business and discusses the qualities and experiences that have helped build her career.

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Deloitte Views & Analysis

Establishing or expanding operations or back-office functions in other countries can usher in many benefits, but can also carry hidden costs and risks. Bob Chapman, managing partner, global, for Deloitte LLP, discusses important, and sometimes overlooked, considerations in building or relocating in other countries. Mr. Chapman, who leads efforts with respect to investments in markets such as Brazil, China, India, Japan and Southeast Asia, also discusses some of the inherent risks.

Emerging market growth has become the siren song of the consumer products industry, but emerging market M&A can present significant obstacles. Companies seeking growth in emerging markets should consider targets that can add value in the medium term while providing long-term positional advantages. And when embarking on an acquisition or strategic joint venture, they should understand the potential issues that could hinder competitiveness.

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Using Analytics and Visualization for Supply Chain Decisions: Weekend Reading

Kelly Marchese, Principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP

Over the last decade, supply chain risk has become an increasingly pertinent issue for many business leaders. A survey of nearly 600 global manufacturing and retail executives found that 48% of the executives reported an increase in the frequency of supply chain risk events that had negative outcomes. Further, not only are these risks becoming more frequent, they’re also becoming more costly, according to 53% of the survey’s respondents.

Companies across diverse industries have widely accepted that complex global supply chains require sophisticated, connected tools to monitor risks, predict disruptions and support rapid recovery as part of an overall resilience strategy. For leading companies, this line of thinking has given way to an increase in the adoption of advanced tools grounded in analytics and visualization.

Using case studies to demonstrate how compa­nies addressed or averted supply chain crises, the article, Risk to Resilience: Using Analytics and Visualization to Reduce Supply Chain Vulnerability, co-authored by Kelly Marchese and Jerry O’Dwyer, both principals at Deloitte Consulting LLP, discusses how executives can bolster their supply chain’s resilience through four “resilience pillars”:

Visibility encompasses a company’s ability to track and monitor supply chain events and patterns and proactively turn these insights into actions

Flexibility refers to a company’s ability to adapt to disruptions without significantly increasing its operational costs

In March 2012, Lululemon Athletica, Inc., a clothing manufacturer, published its annual report, which noted that the company was “at risk of overly relying on a limited number of suppliers.” In fact, Luon, a fabric the company used in its popular yoga pants, was supplied by a single Taiwanese manufacturer.¹ The following year the company discovered that its black yoga pants were too sheer and needed to be recalled. The recall resulted in an estimated $18 million in lost revenues and shaved 12% off the company’s stock price. Lululemon’s share price valuation eventually recovered, but the luxury brand’s shortcomings in quality control linger in the minds of would-be customers and investors.

Broadly speaking, supply chain risks fall into four baskets: macroenvironmental risks, which originate from sources outside a company’s supply chain; extended value chain risks, which originate from upstream or downstream partners in a company’s supply chain; operational risks, which originate in a company’s internal processes; and functional risks, which originate in a company’s enabling areas, including finance, human resources, information technology and legal.

Jerry O’Dwyer, Principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP

Eliminating risk may be a fool’s errand, given the overwhelming number of ways that things can go wrong in an intricate supply chain. And even if a company could concoct effective responses to every conceivable supply chain risk event, it could still fall victim to inconceivable “Black Swan” events, which by definition, defy rational expectations.² But perhaps eliminating risk isn’t the point.

In the past decade, a promising suggestion arose: Rather than making large investments with the hope that they might be able to eliminate risk, companies can actually better help themselves by making their supply chains more resilient to the infinite number of risks that may become realities. In other words, companies can bolster the resilience of their supply chains by making targeted investments in areas that proactively mitigate risk: enhancing the visibility of their supply chains, collaborating with suppliers, improving the control of key operational and quality processes, and enhancing flexibility to improve responses to adverse changes in the external environment. The ability to continue to meet supply chain objectives by preventing or, if necessary, recovering quickly from risk-related disruptions may be more fruitful than merely crossing corporate fingers and hoping these risks never materialize.

Companies across diverse industries have widely accepted the fact that complex global supply chains require sophisticated, connected tools to monitor risks, predict disruptions and support rapid recovery as part of an overall resilience strategy. For leading companies, this line of thinking has given way to an increase in the adoption of advanced tools grounded in analytics and visualization. Risk indices, risk-sensing services, supplier data, supply chain modeling and simulation, and supply chain mapping are all helping companies build resilience in the marketplace.

Read the full article to learn more about the how companies use data analytics and visualization to increase supply chain resiliency.